Well, the last couple weeks have been quite crazy to say the least! As I wrote in my last post we had some scary news that the boys had developed symptoms of Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome. I was immediately placed on bed rest and we were hoping that the boys would even out. I had just gotten used to lying around all day when our world totally changed again. So, here are the events of the last couple weeks from what I can remember!
Sunday, October 21st- 1:27 a.m. (Jason looked at the clock when he jumped up)- I wake up to a gushing of water. I jump up and we call the hospital immediately. We knew that we shouldn't go to Lake Norman Regional Medical since they are not equipped to deliver before 32 weeks, but we called to make sure anyway. The on-call doctor called right back and told us to go to CMC Main, where we had been going to the Maternal Fetal Specialist. We leave with only the clothes on our back and zoom down the interstate. Jason did a great job driving, despite what I had said earlier about him never driving me. He definitely sped, but luckily we didn't get pulled over. We called our parents, because we were totally freaked and afraid the boys were coming into the world. Of course they immediately came too. (Mom only hit one possum on the way- lol). We make it to the ER and they immediately send me to Labor and Delivery triage. They get the monitors on me and do the test on my fluid, which was definitely amniotic. One of the boys' water had broken and we actually still are not sure which one! They do the exam to see if I am dilated at all, and thank goodness I'm not. This all takes like an hour and of course I had to be by myself and leave Jason freaking in the waiting room- not cool. Eventually they let him in though and they push me down to a Labor and Delivery Room. Meanwhile I'm having contractions, all three of us have elevated heart rates, and it is super scary. They get an IV in me of all kinds of stuff and I get a shot in the butt. The shot is a steroid to help the babies lungs develop quicker. The hope is to get two of these shots in before delivery. I'm in a lot of pain and of course totally scared, but the boys hold on. I am put on a magnesium IV, which is used for a few different reasons. I am not allowed out of the bed for any reason at this time, so Jason got the honor of emptying my bed pan. This happened a lot because they were pumping me full of IVs of antibiotics, magnesium and fluids. Antibiotic pee is SUPER SMELLY too! Lol The poor guy definitely earned his keep that night and the next day. Neither of us got any sleep because I was being poked and prodded every five seconds or an alarm was going off or I had to pee. So, needless to say, it was pretty crazy!
Monday, October 22nd I had stabilized by Monday, even though I was still hooked up to a lot of stuff. The doctors came in about halfway through the day though and said we would be moving to the ante-partum wing. This was because I was stable and didn't need the 24 hour monitoring of the babies. So, they moved us to the "Presidential Suite" of the hospital. I was in a HUGE corner room with a beautiful view! It was n amazing room! So the day of Monday was pretty uneventful. We were exhausted, but everything was going well. That is until 12:30 that night.... They came in to check my temperature (which they still do every 4 hours), and I woke up. That was when I noticed I was soaking wet and it wasn't pee or sweat. Nope, my water had broken and gushed everywhere AGAIN! Ugh! So, the drama kicked back up and I had to have more drugs and another exam. My cervix was still not dilated though- thank goodness!!! So, back on the drugs I went. I got to stay in my fancy room though, for a little while longer.
Tuesday, October 23rd This day was calmer, but I was still on a lot of drugs. They lightened up on the monitoring (all the straps around my belly- one for each heartbeat and one for contractions.). I noticed that I was having more trouble breathing though. I just couldn't get a deep breath, which is pretty normal when you have a belly full of babies, but it was worse than normal. I mentioned this to my nurse, and then all heck broke loose. In a matter of moments I had every test in the world- chest x-ray, ekg, cat scan, etc. I had fluid in my lungs as a result of the magnesium I had the days before. So, now I was on oxygen and they were quite worried about me. Ugh! Down the hill of the roller coaster again!
Wednesday, October 24th This was the next really scary day when we truly thought the babies were coming. They had gotten a lot of my tests back that showed the fluid in my lungs and now I wasn't doing so great again. Oh yeah, this was also the morning they had me do a three-hour glucose test. I had done the one hour the week before at my doctor's office, but was border line. They wanted to check my blood sugar, so at 5 am that morning I started getting blood drawn each hour. My poor arms were already a little wrecked from all the other stuff I'd been having drawn, but they added some more to it. It was lovely. So, that went on for a few hours. That afternoon, my oxygen was still horrible, so they tried a lot of different things. I had one LOVELY IV that makes you pee like every 5 minutes, no joke. Basically what it did was take all the extra fluid from my organs. So every couple minutes I had to be unplugged from my million monitors and drag my IV to the bathroom with me. There I got to pee in this lovely plastic thing where they kept up with how much I peed- awesome. Meanwhile, they were still checking my temperature and it was going up. The biggest thing they worry about with water breaking early is infection. The first sign of infection is a raised temperature, so this was bad. My dinner came, but I was told I couldn't eat it--grrr. In a short amount of time, I was moved back to Labor and Delivery, given more shots, IVs and scared to death that our babies were coming. Jason even shaved because he thought he was going to be in pictures with the babies. However, my temperature went back down and I stabled back out. I didn't really sleep at all that night though because I got poked and prodded all night again. The babies stayed in though, which was what was really important!!
Thursday and Friday, October 25th and 26th I got a lot better and more stable on these days. During the evenings, I was still having really strong and frequent contractions, so I got my nightly exam to see if my cervix was open at all. It remained closed, thank goodness! I got medicine, including morphine, which helped a lot to sleep. I couldn't eat for a full 24+ hours, which made me quite grumpy, but I survived. During this time I started to get my blood sugar taken every couple hours. My glucose tests had come back and I had failed one of them, so I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes on top of everything else! So now I got my finger pricked quite often. The nurses were really sweet though and said it was probably because of my steroids that I had failed the test. So, now I got to have a restricted diet too- woo hoo! Since we were relatively drama free for a couple of days, they moved us back to ante-partum. So Jason gathered up all our belongings (again!) and we moved again. My presidential suite had been taken (boo!), so I had to move to a much smaller room. It was still nice though, and I didn't have to stay on the monitors 24/7 which was good.
Saturday-Wednesday, October 27th-31st I don't want to jinx us, but these last few days have been scarily calm. We have just been hanging out and haven't had drama. My lungs are now clear. I am still having the contractions, especially at night, but they haven't been bad enough to require medicine or a cervical exam. So, now we are hopefully going to do this for as long as possible. I've been working on lesson plans and reading. We've watched a few movies, and it's been really nice to not be on top of the doctor's list. Now I barely see them, which is great! I've become boring!! Hopefully it will stay that way for a LONG time. I get monitored twice a day for anywhere from a half hour to an hour. This monitors both babies’ heart rates and my contractions. The boys’ heart beats have been fabulous, which we are so grateful for.
Saturday my mom and some of our friends ran the Race for Fetal Hope 5k, or at least it was supposed to be a 5k. There was some miscommunication on the course and it ended up being a lot longer. One of the main causes they were running for was TTTS, though, so it meant so much to us that they ran. They even had snazzy shirts. Ashley won the whole thing and got $50 that she selflessly donated to us for the twins. We have the most amazing friends ever. They are so incredibly supportive and I don’t know what we would do without them! My grandparents from Alabama were also visiting on Saturday, so they came by the hospital to see us. They brought me a wonderful fuzzy nightgown though. I’m actually able to wear “real” clothes now instead of hospital gowns, which is great!!
Sunday I finally felt up to having non-family visitors, so we contacted a few friends to come visit. We eventually want to see a lot more people, but we wanted to ease into it. So we had Ashley and Casey come for a little while, then Erin and Angus, and then Patrick and Erica. It was great to see everyone a little at a time and hear what was going on in the “real” world. Erin brought some great pictures to help decorate my room, which make me really happy every time I look at them. She also brought some really cute preemie clothes for when the boys get here. Even though they’re tiny and it scares me, they were adorable! We would love for more people to visit now, so just shoot me or Jason a text if you want to come up and we’ll let you know if it’s a good time. I’m not going anywhere, so as long as we are drama free, we would love to see you!
Monday was a HUGE day because we had a super important ultrasound that would track the boys’ growth. They only measure growth every two weeks, so this was vital to see whether they were growing, especially Will. If it turned out Will wasn’t growing or getting enough from his umbilical cord, we would have to schedule a C-section. So, we nervously went for our scan and it turned out wonderfully!! Two weeks before, they were showing uneven growth and were 28% different in size, which is why we were told they most likely had TTTS. Well, they are still 24% different, but they had grown! Jack grew from 2 lbs. 2 oz. to 2 lbs. 8 oz. Will grew from 1 lb. 8 oz. to just a little shy of 2 lbs!! We were so happy. The flow from Will’s umbilical isn’t perfect, but it’s adequate! We were so happy our little guys were showing growth. Another thing they look at is the fluid in the boys’ amniotic sacs. Jack still has way too much, but it hadn’t increased. Will still has a little less than he needs, but it had improved from the last check. So it all looked great to us! Our prayers had definitely been answered!! The doctors confirmed everything and our plan is to just stay on the strict hospital bed rest as long as possible. So, that’s where we are now! I will stay on my booty forever if it means getting more belly time for the boys. Every day that they can remain in my belly is equal to three days they would have to stay in the NICU. So, we are going to make it as far as possible. Our ultimate goal is 34 weeks. They don’t want us to go past that with the TTTS, but you never know. Right now we are taking it a day at a time and praising God for his many blessings each and every day.
Baby Jack
Baby Will- he is always shy! He's turned to the side here.
We went on a tour of the NICU the other night, which was good for us, but very scary. The babies in there are SO TINY! There were babies who had been born at 24 weeks! It was amazing to see, but very emotional. We know that our boys will have some NICU time, but we are hoping to keep it as short as possible. The staff here is absolutely amazing. They take such great care of mommas and babies and truly love what they do. Everyone is so nice, even down to the people who take my food orders. We are in great hands and I would definitely recommend CMC to anyone!
I did get some good news this morning- they don’t think I really have Gestational Diabetes, so I don’t have to be pricked anymore for my blood sugar. Now they are just going to check it once a week to be sure it isn’t too high- yahoo! Now I can eat what I want again and don’t have to have the daily pokes! Before this adventure, I had never had to stay in the hospital. This experience has definitely made me thankful for my good health my whole life. I will never take a lot of things for granted anymore. Heck, being able to get up a pee without being attached to a million monitors is pretty fabulous. We have truly seen the power of prayer in the last couple weeks and we have felt so blessed and loved by everyone. We are hoping to spend at least another month here with the boys on the inside! We will keep you posted though through Facebook mainly. I decided when we first got here to take it a day at a time and so far that has worked.
My husband has been the most amazing person during this time. He has been right by my side the entire time and sleeps here every night with me on a not-so-great “sofa.” When he has to leave for any moment, he calls, and is nervous. He’s going to be the best dad in the whole world and I am so blessed to have him. I’m not sure what I did to deserve such an amazing person, but I sure am glad I have him. I have no idea how I would be doing this without him. We’ve nicknamed him “Doogie Houser” because he has become quite great at all this medical jargon and reading the machines. Even the doctors know to ask him all the recent stats because he has them all memorized. I am so happy that I have him in my life and as the father of my children.
Sitting and writing all of this definitely makes me truly understand the roller coaster ride we’ve been on! Hopefully it will stay calm now, and we’ll be in here for a while just waiting on these guys to “cook” some more! We want to meet them really badly, but of course, not yet! Again, thank you everyone for your constant prayers and support! We have definitely seen it working!
